[hackerspaces] What's your WiFi setup?

[Matt Joyce]

Just chiming in.

I've also heard about openwrt scaling issues.

I know at nycresistor we had failures under large numbers of folks
operating with the fonera2.0n units.  Work solid at home... but
scaling... nopers.

I have a buffalo unit with atheros i do dev work on.  I suppose I
could try to do some stress testing on it.

buffalo wzr-ag-300h unit.

On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 1:54 PM, Jonathan Lassoff <jof at thejof.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Rubin Abdi <rubin at starset.net> wrote:
>> All that being said, if you've got that cash, go for 802.11n running at
>> 5gHz. You can run it at 2.4gHz but there's really no point as the access
>> point you'll be using most likely will also offer 802.11g at the same
>> frequency, and the moment someone hits the access point with a machine
>> that doesn't support 802.11n, everyone will be dropped down to g.
>
> The best way to keep the better client adapters (supporting 5 Ghz and
> 802.11n HT) from being dragged down by older, more inefficient radios
> is to segment ESSIDs. It's certainly possible to run the same ESSID
> ("network name") with multiple access points, but as Rubin points out,
> it just takes one slow adapter to sully the bunch.
>
> This is why we run our 5 Ghz AP as "noisebridge-a", and our 802.11b/g
> stuff as "noisebridge".
>
>> At Noisebridge we run a pair of Cisco 1100 for our 802.11bg/2.4gHz
>> network, and a Ubiquiti PowerStation 5 running 802.11a/5gHz. The Ciscos
>> are problematic and really need to be replaced, and we've never had any
>> problems with the PowerStation.
>
> Actually, I think that the Cisco radios have been rock solid, but the
> 2.4 Ghz ISM spectrum not so much. If we had a lot more Ethernet and
> 2.4 Ghz APs sprayed all over the place, I don't think it would be as
> big of an issue.
>
>> Ubiquiti gear is rock solid, and pending funds, we'll eventually get
>> some UniFi Pro devices, which have radios to run 2.4 and 5 ghz at the
>> same time. A set of 3 is about $600 - $700 on ebay.
>>
>> If we were strapping for cash (which we typically are), and I had time
>> to actually work on this shit, I would use several NanoStation Locos in
>> the space.
>
> Here, here! Ubiquiti makes some great gear, and nearly all of it runs
> OpenWRT swimmingly if you're into firmware hacks.
> The Ubiquiti "AirOS" firmware seems much more geared towards WISPs,
> and less towards 802.11 access.
>
> Cheers,
> jof
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